Everything you need to know to read Homer's "Odyssey" - Jill Dash 

Here in Greece, in 7th grade the Odyssey is a subject like maths, geogrphy etc. To be honest , in my opinion it is the most enjoyable and fun subject of all !

how would Odysseus react if someone told him how small the Mediterranean Sea really was?

That moment when you realize that nothing you'll ever write will be remembered 2800 years from now.

After the ruins of Troy were discovered, the descriptions turned out to be amazingly accurate. It makes me wonder just how much of the rest of the stories were historically accurate.

I love Greek culture, mythology, and history. Wish I were from there and wish I could go there. I am actually named after the goddess Persephone.

i would recommend ancient Greek to start with.

So in the Ancient Greece, I could just get in a house and they would treat me like a guest?

I live in greece and in my school We do the oddysey as a lesson

The Iliad is not the story of the Trojan war! It is a story set during the Trojan war. It assumes the listener (reader) already knows the story of the Trojan war and it is just about Achilles dealing with the death of his friend during the siege of Troy.

Even today, good hospitality and giving gifts is a big part of visiting someone’s home or celebrations. We take that stuff super seriously.

I'm Greek. So proud of my history.

I had the chance and visited Homer's school on the island of Ithaki a few months ago. It was so peaceful and inspiring to walk amongst the ruins in which great minds shared knowledge. I can't wait to go back and spend more time.

I'll just play Super Mario Odyssey when it's released.

I'd like to see an in-depth analysis of H.P. Lovecraft's works.

I am from greece.We do it for 1 year as a lesson.Yes,it has lots of things that you must explain to understand it well,but you can finish it easily with a teacher next to you.

There are several approaches; fictional, historical, social, psychological, metaphysical all of them worth figuring out!!! Love it.

Do the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Journey to the west or some Asian story please

We read the odyssey last year in my second year of high school. It is beautiful.

the odyssey had a purpose

Never in my life have i been this fascinated by a narrator before!! Hope u r having a good day ma'am, you and your soothing voice ❤️

The animation in these videos is always so nifty and inventive.

Love the graphics and the breakdown of the story. We just got done reading the majority of the story before we had to return the book to the library.

I literally just finished reading The odyssey about a month ago

One very small correction. The Illiad is not about the Trojan War. It's about Achilleus' rage, which takes place and occurs due to the Trojan War. We learn about the end of the war from other poets.

1. you need to know how to read 2. that's it, you can read the Odyssey

This book is amazing tbh. I don't read much but I've always loved this one.

As I have just finished reading this work. My random thoughts, in the context of this video, are these: *It is oft said, but barely half true to say that Odysseus' troubled path home was because he blinded the cyclops, Polyphemus. While it is true that Poseidon, his dad, raised storms a number of times, he only knew the name of the perpetrator, because Polyphemus told him. Odysseus initially told Polyphemus that his name was "Noman", but rashly and advised otherwise by his own men, blurted out his real name, after having escaped, just boast to, and taunt, the now very angry Polythemus. Were it not for that, Poseidon would not have known whom to assail. Mistake #1. Then only in the next chapter, Aeolus sends his ships by favorable wind, to within sight of Ithaca, by wrapping all the unfavorable winds in bags. But Odysseus men let them out of the bag at which they were all sent back off into the sea. Mistake #2. It is more correct to say that Odysseus own boastful arrogance caused his troubles, rather than the blinding of Polyphemus per se. *"Xenia" may well have been contemporaneously considered a wise hedge against insulting gods in human form, but sometimes such tales are just grand stories of convenience, masking a more practical reason. In this case, consider that Greece is a large area with a vast number of islands and only partially connected city states. I think anyone can readily see that travelling around Greece, would have presented significant problems remaining fed and provisioned, especially when there was alot of sailing involved. I take the whole idea of Xenia as a pragmatic sense of mutual benefit dressed up with this story about not offending gods. *while the story is highly entertaining (though the latter chapters do drag somewhat) if I ponder what is the overall purpose and message of the work, in the context of the time, I would say it is "Don't touch my stuff while I'm gone". Kings of city states leaving on military adventures seems was common enough, and absenting yourself and your armed followers, is an obvious risk of overthrow. What better way to terrorise those who remain into leaving the queen, the wealth, and the position of ruler, alone, other than by a/ enshrining in tradition that you are likely to turn up unexpectedly and kill them all, and b/ that the gods really won't be on their side? Most readers here will know Agamemnon's fate when he returned. All, up have concluded that to be the main theme and purpose: no matter how long I am gone, fear me and my return. I could even be 20 years.... *Lastly, my suggestion for reading it: *every time you read a reference to any other character from mythology, look them up. Easily done if you use a Kindle or Kindle app. That will ultimately furnish you with a good idea about greek mythology's most important stories. All the more if you read The Iliad first, as did I, and apply the same strategy. *Before you start (alas, I did not), write a list of all the pantheon, including both their greek and latin names. The version I read used them both, randomly! Note particularly that Pallas, Minerva and Athena are the same goddess.

Wow, I appreciate all of the knowledge and research that you've done for us!

“It helps to have some background before jumping in” tell that to my Freshman English teacher who assigned this immediately without explanation.

I would love to see you give this treatment to 'the curious incident of the dog in the night-time'. The way the book is written alone will make for some great visuals.

A lot of this applies to the Mahbharata and Ramayana --- which are longer and far more wide spread than Homer's epics. Would appreciate a video on them.

i love when you make videos about books and novels. im sad when there are just 9 video about books

This is the best narrator I've ever heard. Phenomenal Cheers

Anyone else here before they start showing this in classrooms?

Who else has to do this for online school

I would love to watch a modern remake of the Odyssey right now

In Italy in 9th grade we have to read homer’s poems and in 10th grade the Aeneid... I love the them :)

I'm reading it in 4th grade, and it is AMAZING. By far one of the best books in my opinion. After I finish it, I'm reading Ulysses.

Ulyyses is a shortened and more comprehensible version. It sums it up well.

The Sirens are half birds, not mermaids.

I would suggest getting someone who knows something about the Odyssey to write the script for such a talk. What we have here are scraps of fact in a framework of misconception about the poem and the poet. Just a few examples. Homer - to give the poet a name - thinks he is telling listener about how a clever man managed to get home. The poem starts at the beginning of the story - on Calypso's island - and recounts how he made it to an island where he received help. There he recited the story of his wanderings which is not what the story is about. The wanderings are a background to the man which illustrate his cleverness. The man gets home, finds his kingdom about to be taken over, and, with the help of his son and a few people loyal to him, how he manages to regain his rightful place. Aristotle gives roughly the same summary. The Iliad is not about the Trojan War. It is about an event which cover approximately six ekes in the 10th year of the war. There was a quarrel between the chief commander of the Greek forces and one of the sub-commanders. Because of the quarrel, the offended person withdraws from the fighting - and the Greeks begin to lose heavily - but is persuaded to return to battle after his close friend is killed. He kills the man who killed his friend and humiliates the man's family - the king of Troy - by not allowing the body to be buried properly. The killed man's father comes to the Greek man, and begs him to return the body, The Greek man does so, covered with shame at his behaviour. After this, he makes his peace with the commander and the two of them discuss why it is that people who should know better behave so stupidly and shamefully. One incident. Six weeks in the 10th year. No mention of why the war started, or how it is expected to end. A powerful story of irrational behaviour and the mystery of why this behaviour appears. And I could go on. This video is just silly.

We had to read The Odyssey last year and I hated it at first but now I regret slacking off on that project, it's such a wonderful story

Great video! Perfect timing too--I'm currently reading The Odyssey for my Epic class 😊

I’ve read the Iliad and the Odyssey around 4 times in the past three years (I had a phrase where I loved Ancient Greek history). And every single time I get confused by the wording.

this is like one piece but with an ending

Great book. I loved it.

funny thing is my English class started the Odyssey a week ago so this is pretty useful

Homer: Bruh I’m real I-

I'm curious. Which epic do people prefer, the _Iliad_ or the _Odyssey_?

Greeks own the greatest civilization in the world and they are so cool people I have many Greek friends they are great

there is an incredible musical based on the odyssey! its still a wip, but i love it very much. (its called epic the musical and it's being written by jorge herrans if you're interested)

We had to read the Odyssey and do an exam for classic culture, so it's cool to see this after

My first week of uni we were expected to read the oddessy in a week (we didn’t even have summer reading lists) it was brutal

I just feel Indian Mythology infact is as detailed and profound as Greek mythology. But surprised that internationally under rated. I would love to Research on the underlying reasons for this. And if you are reading this and you just Believe in the joy of stories,do check out Indian myths while I go on to explore Greek for now😍🥰

Thanks for making this like a week after we finished reading it ;-;

Literally took a test on it today. Could've used this last night

Oh my English class read this last year! Too bad I didn't see this when we read it. Great video though!

It's interesting that your illustrations would picture the Trojan Horse when referencing The Iliad, when The Iliad does not encompass that event.

Actually Rhapsodes comes from the Greek verb rhapto which means to mend, so the oral poets are not the rhapsodes but Aedi, the rhapsodes were the ones who used to basically triscribed the oral poems

"made for listeners rather than readers" agree, got more out of this in the Claire Danes audio book than when I read in uni

It is interesting how gods disguised as humans wandering the earth repeats a lot in European and Indo-Arian myth. Like Odin the Wanderer was very similar in the north, we had people here in the north who were like Irish travelers (tatter) and would ask to sleep in your barn, and courtesy would be to let them because they could be Odin in disguise.

I don't now why I kept laughing at 3:38

I loved this book.

Thank you! This was really helpful

I'm reading this right now :O what a surprise

나는 호메로스의 오디세이아를 읽고 있습니다. 호메로스 보러 왔는데, 한글 자막이 멋집니다. 전문가가 번역하셨나봅니다. 영상도 설명도 매우 멋집니다. 감사합니다. I am reading Homer's Odyssey. I came to see Homer, and the Korean subtitles are great. It must have been translated by an expert. The video and explanation are very nice. Thank you.

Oooh I never caught that Odysseus was the constant guest, while Penelope was a constant hostess. Interesting.

I love this narrator!!

Personally prefer the Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid, but the Odyssee is great

Dude this would have been sooo useful about a week ago

Great job! My students said that this video SLAYS!

You should do a war book like all quiet on the western front or Oedipus Rex is pretty cool

I'm so glad you can leave voice messages as comments now!!! ▶ 🔘──────── 00:13

As a Greek I can positively say that homer was a real person and the alphabet was a thing then . The Odyssey was composed during the 8th century b.c but refers to the 12th . There are written scripts in the Greek dialect they spoke back then . Get better info .

Read this amazing epos thanks to you. Thank you!!

The first Shonen ever written

You are probably not going to believe this but I (a 15y old boy) have translated and read 1/4 of the Odyssee already. Its quite hard tbh. Btw I am Dutch

Fufufu Penelope really enjoyed her hosting career 👌

No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy

Awesome. Thank you!

please do Mahabharata

Exellent decision manager 🗣️🗣️

Epics were originally meant to be read aloud to listeners? Well that explains why I love professionally voiced audiobooks so much more than reading text when it comes to fiction and historical/mythological perspectives.

I read The Odyssey last semester... It was by far the roughest part of the whole semester.

this is so strangely similar to hinduism. where the king of devas is Indra who happens to be the deva of rain and lighting. and how hindu ancien5 texts are all poetries like the Gita to be recited. and how we hindus have a saying 'athithi devo bhava' meaning 'guests are God' being hindus too like what she said, offered hospitality to whomever that came to their door.

Actually rhapsodes did actually read the things they were singing, it was the aoidoi that just sang the poems

*Great* , outstanding narrator

Enjoy the Odyssey as comic animation on my channel (English versions). - Die Odyssee als Comic Animation gibt´s auf meinem Kanal

Useful and entertaining video. Thanks! One minor correction: mnemonic isn't pronounced 'numonic' (1:40)

So these guys were Dungeons and Dragonsing up in this bitch in 8000 bc? OG.

Make the hole books like this please

love this!

HOMER!!!We are in an ancient greek legend!HOMER!!!

It's impossible to understand the Odyssey unless you are Greek. Nikos Kazantzakis proved this to my satisfaction in his writings.

Hey ted ed,why don't you make a video on Mahabharata which is longer than Iliad and Odyssey combined?

Sounds like a great story. No movie on it yet?

They didn't just welcome guests because they feared they might be gods in disguise. Zeus was also the protector of beggars and visitors, so they were obligated to offer a beggar what they asked for and welcome strangers into their house, in fear that Zeus might punish them or send them bad luck. Xenia (Ξενία, it means friendship in ancient greek) was passed down from generation to generation, meaning the bond of the host and the visitor would be passed down to their children.

These videos always present one interpretation as factual. Sometimes this is fine, but when you try and apply it to something like the work of Homer, it falls flat and just seems poorly researched.

Why did video not uploaded when I needed it the most!!!!!

I had to analyse the characters, the dialogue, translate it so i can composition it while reading the ancient text so i could pass 8th grade. Never got to the ending though